Edinburgh, Coatfield Lane, Balmerino House

No. 224 Houses in Leith (part)

Several houses dating from the 17th and 18th centuries still survive in the Kirkgate, which led from the water-front by way of Water Street to St. Mary's Church (No. 217). Of these the earliest is Balmerino House [NT27NE 32], which is screened from the street by later buildings and looks out at the back on the grounds of St. Mary's R.C. Church. Built in 1631 by John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, second son of Robert, Earl of Orkney, it was sold in 1643 to John, Lord Balmerino, in whose family it remained until the attainder of the sixth Lord in 1746. Writing in 1848 Sir Daniel Wilson says (1) of it "Entering by a low and narrow archway immediately behind the buildings on the east side the visitor finds himself in a singular looking, irregular, little court. A projecting staircase is thrust obliquely into the narrow space and adapts itself to their regular sides of the court by sundry corbels and recesses . . . A richly decorated dormer-window forms the chief ornament of this portion of the building, furnished with unusually fine Elizabethan work, and surmounted by a coronet and thistle, with the letter C. Behind this a simple square tower rises to a considerable height, finished with a bartizaned roof . The east front appears to have been considerably modernized. Its most striking feature is a curiously decorated doorway,* finished in the ornate style of bastard Gothic introduced in the reign of James VI. An ogee arch, filled with rich Gothic tracery, surmounts the square lintel, finished with a lion's head . . . and on either side is a sculptured shield, on one of which a monogram is cut . . . and with the date 1631. Here according to early and credible tradition was the mansion of John, third Lord Balmerinoch, where he received the young King, Charles II, on his arrival at Leith on the 29th of July 1650." In a note on the same page he blazons a coat of arms " on the second shield" as: Quarterly, 1st and 4th the Royal Arms of Scotland ; 2nd and 3rd, a ship with sails furled ; over all, on a shield of pretence, a chevron. Commenting on this information in 1862 Dr. Robertson states (2) that the " tower "was then still extant, but that the Gothic lintel had been removed to 24 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh. Of the arms carved upon it he says " They are the Burgh Stewart of Scotland"; actually the arms are those of John Stewart, Earl of Carrick. A motto borne on a circular label enclosing the shield he also gives as SIC FVIT EST ET ERIT ("Thus it has been, is, and shall be "). As it stands to-day, the Balmerino house comprises a large oblong block containing a sunk floor and two upper storeys; having been cemented on the outside, it is now featureless but for a modern doorway on the E. side carrying a ship in full sail in the centre of its frieze. The wing that contained the original entrance has been swept away.

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

(1) Memorials, ii, pp. 140 f. (2) P.S.A.S., iv (1860-2), p. 450.

*This was taken down about 1904.